"A Platform for Good (PFG) is a project of the Family Online Safety Institute (FOSI) designed to help parents, teachers and teens to connect, share, and do good online! At FOSI we work with leaders in the field of online safety and, regularly, we hear about incredible stories and exciting opportunities in our digital world. We hear stories of parents, teens, and teachers using technology to raise social awareness, encourage activism, enhance our education system, and of course, have fun!

What we have noticed, however, is that the stories reported in the news and infusing public conversation are focused heavily on the negative notions that don't support the research that says the majority of people's online experiences are positive. Given this climate, it is our hope that PfG will create a place to have a more balanced discussion about the role digital technology can play in our lives.

Our vision for A Platform for Good is to start a dialogue about what it means to participate responsibly in a digital world. While recognizing the potential risks, we will celebrate technology as a vehicle for opportunity and social change."

Three-quarters of online Americans know which is bigger, a megabyte or a kilobyte, but only 9% are able to correctly identify the first widely popular graphical web browser. How much do you know about the web and digital technology?

"This maker movement isn’t necessarily something new. For years in my library, I have allowed opportunities for my students to play and tinker with reading and writing."

"The word makerspace, for me, is really simply a metaphor for enabling opportunities for your students to create, imagine, and build, and what better springboard for that than stories? Stories fuel and ignite the imagination."

"This maker movement isn’t necessarily something new. For years in my library, I have allowed opportunities for my students to play and tinker with reading and writing."

"The word makerspace, for me, is really simply a metaphor for enabling opportunities for your students to create, imagine, and build, and what better springboard for that than stories? Stories fuel and ignite the imagination."

It is true that the work is subjective but at least it captures the essence of the transformational change that has befell education in the 21st century . Check it out below and share with us what you think of it. Enjoy

What I find interesting is the work Benjamin Bergen describes in Louder Than Words. http://www.louderthanwordsbook.com/ People often ask can we multitask as if there is a 'yes' or 'no' answer. Clearly, situations matter. Bergen points to research that suggests if we visualize or imagine certain activities - like hitting a baseball - the same regions of the brain are activated and engaged as if we were actually hitting that baseball. So even though we might expect the visual region to light up because we are 'seeing' something in our mind's eye, it is actually a motor region that is engaged. This, therefore, impacts our multitasking abilities for another 'motor' task. --> I love the rich texture of these ideas.

Today is Banned Website Awareness Day, and all across the country, educators are doing their part to raise awareness of how overly restrictive blocking of educational websites affects student learning.

The dialogue around filtering must also include bring-your-own-device policies, appropriate use of social media in schools, and overall responsible use of technology in school. Each of these issues plays an important part in the equation that influences school policy around filtering websites. For example, do students and teachers use social media sites like Edmodo or even Facebook for class purposes? Are educational videos on YouTube part of teachers’ curriculum? In large school districts, does it make sense to have individual school policies? Are students allowed to use their cell phones?

This is a fairly basic list of ideas, but could be useful for an initial "checklist". For most of them, there will be associated research and when using "tips" it's always good to be critical and search for other points of view. “Be sure to build in tasks that generate peer-to-peer interaction and sharing; those where participants create something their peers can use and benefit from tend to be most successful" - good point, which has several underlying theoretical principles to back it up.

"The New Media Consortium, the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), with the support of HP, produced the NMC Horizon Report > 2013 K-12 Edition. This fifth edition in the annual K-12 series of the NMC Horizon Project examines emerging technologies for their potential impact on and use in teaching, learning, and creative inquiry within the environment of pre-college education. Six emerging technologies are identified across three adoption horizons over the next one to five years, as well as key trends and challenges expected to continue over the same period, giving educators, school administrators, and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning."

A Flow Chart that Describes SAMR

"SAMR is a great framework for thinking about technology and how it can best be used in a teaching environment to bring about transformational learning opportunities that wouldn't have been possible without the technology."

As our schools move to 1:1, BYOD, flipped or hybrid digital learning environments, this model gives clear guidance on the different levels of integration. Thanks to Beth Dichter's timely Scoop, I will begin my 1:1 journey with a clear pathway to success.

We know that each student is unique, but what about each student's brain? This new Students at the Center infographic draws on the research from Mind, Brain, and Education to depict the brain science behind student-centered approaches to learning.

With the Chronicle of Higher Education’s recent story, “MOOC Mania,” even more people are talking about MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses – and a lot of this dialogue is happening right here on www.hastac.org. Check out the links below for insightful posts on MOOCs and how to use them to revolutionize teaching and learning.

The Flipped Classroom is a learning model where students are exposed to new ideas at home–often through videos–and then work applications of that learning at school–an approach that reverses, or “flips” the old approach.

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

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Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.